On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 was having a preflight test when a fire broke out inside the cabin. The fire claimed the lives of the three astronauts on board; Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. Prior to the fire, the astronauts had noticed that the spacecraft was a bit off, Grissom is reported as saying that he smelled a “sour smell” when he used the spacecrafts oxygen supply. The module also had a higher oxygen flow, then it was normally supposed to have, and lastly the module was having communication problems, but they continued with the test anyway which was a fatal mistake. The spacecraft caught fire on the launch pad, shocking the nation. The Apollo 1 mission strengthened the nation because it inspired United States citizens …show more content…
Once the space program had more people invested into it, it became much more successful. “The first unmanned Saturn V was launched on November 9, 1967, less than 10 months after the Apollo 1 fire. It lifted off perfectly” (Smith 45). After Apollo 1, the program was taken more seriously, and therefore NASA started getting better results. Citizens were shocked and disrupted by the gruesome outcome of Apollo 1 test. As more changes from NASA came, support of United States citizens followed. As NASA received more support, it grew and was able to spend more time perfecting the details during the building process rather than putting a spacecraft together and then fixing it, after numerous tests. After Apollo 1, American people understood the importance of having a well put together space program, and were willing to give the program the proper time needed to succeed. Without Apollo 1, the United States most likely wouldn’t have been as successful in the space race as it was. “It was found that the next Apollo craft, still under construction, contained as many as 1,400 faults.” (Cadbury 305) Apollo 1 opened the eyes of the workers at NASA, proving to them that their spacecrafts were not up to the standard they needed to be at. Since Apollo 1, many improvements have been made in the space program. There were over one hundred changes in design and in safety procedures in the overall program in …show more content…
The fire started from an electrical spark, that eventually lead to a fire due to the pure oxygen in the module. Since Apollo 1 was poorly built, it never would have made it to launch, and should not have even made it to a test. Since, NASA has set a new standard of craftsmanship in order to fix their problems before they happen, NASA’s style of space engineering improved to create many successful missions. With the successful missions into space and the back to earth, NASA was able to aim for a bigger target; the moon. Preparing to go to the moon, NASA employed strict guidelines as well as rigorous tests that would alert the scientists if something had to be fixed. These tests and rules ultimately allowed the United States to get to the moon. But, before all of the tests and missions, the United States needed motivation to explore the vast expanse. Kennedy inspired the United States citizens to get on board with the space program. “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth” (Kennedy 1). Before Kennedy, the United States had little invested in space. The United States had began space travel, but mostly in fear of the Soviets. The United States thought that the Soviets would spy on them from space, or worse, use space to control the world. The United States also feared that
Are you focused on what you're doing and thinking during an emergency? Do you just give up if you’re stuck in a problem? In the Scholastic Scope article, “Disaster in Space,” it teaches us that in an emergency, we should remain calm and focused on the problem and to never give up, as the astronauts and engineers involved in the Apollo 13 mission did during an emergency on the spacecraft. These processes are exemplified in the Scholastic Scope article, “Disaster in Space” when it talks about how three astronauts handle an emergency that would have costed their lives. In conclusion, in the Scholastic Scope article, “Disaster in Space,” it teaches us that in an emergency, we should remain calm and focused on the problem, use our ingenuity, and never give up, as the astronauts and engineers involved in the Apollo 13 mission did during an emergency on the spacecraft.
...ause it was the mission that NASA was able to put the first man up onto the moon. Neil Armstrong was the pilot of the Apollo 11 flight. There was a special shuttle that was attached to the spaceship; it was called the Eagle. The Eagle was designed to transport some crew members down to the moon. Armstrong was responsible for driving and landing the shuttle safely down to the moon. While on his way down to the moon, Armstrong realized that he was starting to run out of fuel. Thankfully, Armstrong did have enough to land on the moon and make it back up to the spaceship. When the Eagle was leaving the spaceship for the first time up in space, it wasn't completely depressurized so there was something like a gas bubble come from the shuttle as it was on its way to the moon. The gas bubble moved the shuttle off course and the Eagle actually landed four miles off course.
The Space Race was a 20th century competition between the soviet union And the United States for supremacy in spaceflight ability. The launch date for apollo 13 was originally in March of 1970 but later the launch date switched to april. During one of the countdown demonstrations the Kennedy Space Center encountered problems with the oxygen tanks in the service module. When the apollo 13 mission took off their main goal was to land in the Fra Mauro area on the moon. An explosion in one of the oxygen tanks crippled the spacecraft during the flight and the crew were forced to orbit the moon and return to earth without landing. The Apollo 13 mission was launched on April 11th in the year 1970. For the first few days of the flight the crew ran into a couple minor accidents, but Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight of the program. They aborted the mission after 56 hours of flight due to an explosion in the oxygen tanks. “At 5 ½ minutes after liftoff John Swigert, Fred Haise and James Lovell felt a little vibration then the center engine of the S-II stage shut down two minutes early. This caused the remaining 4 engines to burn 34 seconds longer than planned, and the S-IVB third stage had to burn nine seconds longer to put Apollo 13 in orbit.” (nasa.gov) At 55 hours and 46 minutes the crew was finishing a live tv broadcast showing how well they were doing and how they comfortably lived.
My research paper will investigate the Greek God Apollo. The reason I chose Apollo was I have never had a chance to look into other Gods or Goddess’ other than Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. The next seven paragraphs are paraphrased depictions, stories and relational information directly related to the god Apollo The information was compiled by author: Atsma, Aaron J., on the website: Theoi.com. Theoi Project Copyright © 2000 – 2011. 12 May 2014. Each paragraph is a separate encyclopedia reference and is noted in the following footnotes reference.
A turning point in history is when NASA launched Apollo 11. Apollo 11 is a spaceflight that was launched in 1969, and landed the first humans on the moon. Neil Armstrong, one of the spacemen, explained the event as, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The reason this was a historical turning point is because the mission represented the dreams and capabilities of the human mind, and led a lasting change on history.
On July 16, 1969 the space ship Apollo 11 left from Kennedy Space Center en route to the moon. The crew consisted of Neil A. Armstrong, the commander; Edwin E. Aldrin, the jr. lunar module pilot; and Michael Collins, the commander module pilot...
From countdown to splashdown, Apollo 11's mission was filled with some surprising twists and turns. It took a combination of luck, determination and guts for the crew of Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong to get the Eagle to the surface of the moon with only 30 seconds of fuel remaining! Experience the moments leading up to the lunar landing with me.
Moving on to the 60’s and forward the space program expanded greatly. According to Areospace.com, “The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on January 31, 1958” (Areospace.com). Advancements continued onward. As stated by Areospace.com, “In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the first American to orbit Earth” (Areospace.com). The spacecraft technology continued to evolve to today’s astronauts who can more easily transverse the atmosphere’s barrier and make it to space now. Moreover, medical develops like the pacemaker, invented in 1959, has been perfected or discovered along with other medical inventions like: the polio vaccine, the open heart surgery, the discovery of DNA, the first organ transplant, the contraceptive pill, and so
NASA decreased the prevalence of flammable material inside the Command Module (Moskowitz, 2012). Along with the removal of flammable material, NASA also ensured that the materials inside the spacecraft were less, if at all, flammable (Moskowitz, 2012). NASA substituted many materials with less flammable, more protective material and included a portable fire extinguisher in the spacecraft (“APOLLO 1 The Fire,” n.d.). A specific example of this substitution is the use of a wire insulation that has a coating “so fire-resistant that it can't burn even when put in a pure oxygen environment” (Moskowitz, 2012, paragraph 13). As noted previously, the atmosphere in the spacecraft being one hundred percent oxygen was an important factor in the spreading of the fire. To solve this issue, NASA performed flammability tests which led them to the conclusion that having a mixture of sixty percent oxygen and forty percent nitrogen in the module’s atmosphere would reduce the chance of an Apollo 1 repeat happening (“APOLLO 1 The Fire,” n.d.). This mixture would be less flammable than the one hundred percent oxygen atmosphere, but the one hundred percent oxygen atmosphere could still be used as the spacecraft left Earth’s atmosphere without the risk of combustion (“APOLLO 1 The Fire,” n.d.). This led to NASA adopting a method where they slowly replaced the
“On July 16, 1969 the world watched in anticipation as three men were hurtled skyward in a rocket bound for the moon.” (news.nationalgeographic.com). This was the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the first successful manned mission to the moon. This mission was the product of the space race (race to see who would go into outer space first, against the Soviet Union). This goal was set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961 and he promised that we would be the first to step on the moon by the end of the decade. The Apollo 11 mission is often cited as the greatest achievement in human history. (news.nationalgeographic.com)
On April 13, 1970, NASA's Mission Control heard the five words that no control center ever wants to hear: "We've got a problem here." Jack Swigert, an astronaut aboard the Apollo 13 aircraft, reported the problem of broken down oxygen tanks to the Houston Control Center, less than two days after its takeoff on April 11th. Those at the Control Center in Houston were unsure what had happened to the spacecraft, but knew that some sort of explosion had occurred. This so-called explosion sent Apollo 13 spinning away from the Earth at 2,000 miles per hour, 75 percent of the way to the moon. In order to get the astronauts back to the Earth's atmosphere would be to utilize the moon's gravitational pull and send them back towards home, like a slingshot. However, this procedure would require three days, and this demanded more oxygen and electricity than the crew had available to them. Eugene "Gene" Kranz, head of this flight mission, although looking on in horror, began thinking of solutions to the problem immediately after the Controls were aware of the problem on board. Knowing that the options of refueling the spacecraft with oxygen or retrieve the astronauts himself, he needed to think of a strategy for a safe return. In this sense, if his solution fails, it could result in the biggest catastrophe in NASA history.
The history behind the quick development of the space program has always been a little bit hazy and is unbeknownst to most...
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was July 20 1969, the day that reshaped our nation and gave us unparalleled dreams for the future. The impact of the day goes far beyond our pride and nationalism; that day would change space exploration and technology forever. Just like a shooting star, that day would give us a glimpse of hope. A chance to see an event so breathtaking and defying, it would be man’s greatest accomplishment in the 20th century. As millions of people watched from their TV sets, a rush of euphoria came over the nation as Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the surface of the moon. It was the first time in the history of mankind that we would step on the surface of another celestial body. John F. Kennedy dared us to dream, he inspired the nation to reach for the moon, to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world. The Space Race was symbolic of many things. Our future as the technically dominate nation was secured in place; just as secure as Old Glory would be, when she was driven down into the soil of the moon. We not only reached the moon, we conquered it as a nation; united.
In the past 100 years, we have made much advancement in all areas of society. The way people live has changed drastically just in the past century. Technology in particular has advanced more in these last 100 years then all previous time combined. For example, because of the research done by many innovative and dedicated individuals such as the Wright Brothers who were the first to sustain flight in a powered airplane, we are able to fly all over the world in a matter of hours in jet propelled pressurized aircraft. One hundred years ago, the thought of man flying in a machine was insane. The Wright Brothers helped to realize the dream of manned flight. Many years later, after the idea of manned flight becoming a reality, space exploration was the next step. In 1969, many people did not believe what happened. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. They posted an American flag, explored, collected space rocks and came back home. Many Americans did not believe that the technology existed to go that far. Today, several missions a year are launched using manned space shuttles that can be flown back to earth like gliders and reused on future space missions.